Miller High Life for breakfast. Somehow at 4:30 a.m. it seems appropriate to enjoy The Champagne of Beers as I reflect on the 20th anniversary of marriage two. Failed marriage that is. It should have been obvious at the time that when you are engaged in an effort to end… Read full post »

I awake from my dream fully aware. Aware of my room, my situation, my life and my bittersweet memories of love and loss. Have I become a cliche? The martyr, the loser, the hero, the lonely guy, the what? I share my bed in this small room with three dogs;fully aware… Read full post »

A year ago as I struggled to make sense of a life that led itself to homelessness and loss I never would have guessed that today I am fully engaged in my new hometown Statesville, North Carolina as a candidate for City Council. During the last ten years I've been a… Read full post »

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said that 'If the broad light of day could be let in upon men's actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects'. Sunlight is the disinfectant that leads to honest governance. If government is to have a moral center it must be transparent. Transparenc… Read full post »

Freedom is never free. It is earned through constant diligence to its protection. Those who oppose freedom often mask it in opposition to equality. They argue in coded language that there can be no rights without responsibility...as they define it. They organize working class people to stifle their o… Read full post »

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has unleashed a firestorm of protest over his determination to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers. Other states like Ohio where the GOP holds the reins of power are doing the same. All in the name of fiscal responsibility. The downturn… Read full post »

Walking in the brisk darkness to the day labor agency serves one purpose: the demonstration of continuing to try to find work. Those who show up can wait for the phone to ring; a call came in today as a matter of fact for one forklift operator. The agency waiting room… Read full post »

Bayard Rustin was a strategic visionary. Martin Luther King, Jr. trusted his advice because he could analyze the outer dynamic that made the inner struggle seem so intractable. He understood that it is the outer dynamic that must be changed for our society to fulfill its greater promise. His essay Fr… Read full post »

"Ronnie, I've got a surprise for you;" I can still hear my Mother's words today. I was five years old in the summer between Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten at Seaton Lane School in Falls Church. She didn't give a hint what the surprise might be as I helped her out… Read full post »

Do you like this story?

An empty canvas

I met a woman

She was a

Blank

Canvass

Each time we

Met

I

Painted

The strokes

Became

My

Hopes

I painted

Myself

At

My best

We grew

Closer

The canvass

Filling

I

Saw the

Future

It was good

I was a

Leader

Celebrity

Man

Then one… Read full post »

The words contained in this essay are dangerous.

Walking to the library with great relief having survived the four day state holiday, I intended to write about my feelings during this time. It is risky to share from the inside the ugliness of my suffering. After all it may appear that… Read full post »

I never sleep alone. Fear and Vulnerability tuck me in each night. I'm an early riser since Vulnerability hogs the covers while Fear mutters and squirms all night long. I arose this morning at 4, a little early for me, and fired up my email and coffee. Scanning my inbox for… Read full post »

The melancholy I felt yesterday after learning that another minimum wage job was not mine turned into a sense of loss as I awoke this morning and realized that today is my second wife's birthday. I've tried with all my might to think of tomorrow as merely Thursday, a feat I've… Read full post »

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Six years ago TSA was embroiled in controversy over pat-down procedures and now history is repeating itself as a pilot with the backing of a right wing front group, The Rutherford Institute, started a new uproar with his refusal… Read full post »

While it is a given that the unexamined life is not worth living, it is not a given how and what should be examined. It is all too easy to look back with the benefit of hindsight and see moments that I regret. What is not so easy is projecting that… Read full post »

The bus pulled into a hazy gray Washington D.C. and as I disembarked an agent asked, “May I direct you to your connection sir?” the words poured out like bittersweet honey, “No, I’m home brother”. After an all night journey from Boston I was home. Pulling the two bags ca… Read full post »

The Greyhound bus terminal in Boston is teeming with life; at least life as defined by the comings and goings through numerous queues. What a difference 12 hours makes! When I arrived at 4 in the morning it was Boulevard of Broken Dreams in real life. Are they homeless or just/… Read full post »

Early in my unemployment experience I attended a class, it was mandatory and quite enlightening. I discovered that as a former union activist I was virtually unemployable. The rules required that I continue my job search and I did. In two years I’ve applied for nearly 800 jobs resulting one int… Read full post »

Each day I awake with the sense of gratitude that a Facebook Guardian Angel provided sanctuary. Each day I leave with the fear it will end earlier than expected. I am vulnerable by choice; at least in the sense that my choices both noble and ignoble brought me to this point.… Read full post »

The crunching sound outside came crashing into my psyche and only meant one thing: all my possessions were gone; smashed into the trash truck, destroyed and rolling away. When today approached without any options, I had only one choice:  save what could fit into one container, one carryon size b… Read full post »